The thick Fog surrounding Welt broke, revealing the jet black head of a monster with three flickering eyes. It had the head of a big cat, with large pointed ears and a stubby but pronounced nose. It's jaw hung open, revealing two rows of razored teeth and, more disturbingly, a long tongue that unfurled and drooped towards the ground. As it pushed further towards the retrained boy, it's body came into vision, too. It had a long body that brushed with slick, black fur, and four powerful legs that ended in three-clawed paws. A long tail came through the fog last, moving slowly and steadily in the open air.
The thing was almost as dark as the bird that'd chased him into the Fog.
Almost, but not quite.
It's eyes - two being where they should be, and one in the centre of its forehead - blinked rapidly, and moved in all manner of directions, surveying the surroundings almost incessantly. However, it's head kept steady, focused on Welt as he sat defenseless.
The shadow-like creature was upon Welt in an instant, biting at his arm before he'd even realized it could pounce on him. Welt head was filled with too many thoughts of sleep, even now convincing itself that the problem might be solved if he gave in to his tiredness.
The rows of sharp teeth sunk into his arm, but had to get through whatever was wrapping around them, first. Welt's arm was freed from its restraint with a relucant retreat of the tentacle that had coiled around it. He summoned the walking stick into his now free hand and hit at the onyx monster's snout, causing it to recoil and shrivel back from the dull pain.
The large feline lunged forward with its front claws, scraping through Welt's chest and pulling blood free across his torso. THe pain was excruciating, only dulled slightly by the urge to sleep that still clung to him.
It only clung faintly now, though.
Using the pain as a focal point, Welt's mind returned to clarity for a moment. He pushed hard to free himself from the leeching monster's grasp, and pulled himself to stand. Realizing its grip on his mind had almost fully vanished, the creature released all its strength, pulling tightly around his neck and torso to keep him tied to the tree. It yelled with a gargled, unsuppressed fury, and writhed and wormed around with desparation, clinging to him with all its might.
"We're going to die if you don't let me go, anyway, stupid thing."
Welt grumbled and seethed through the pain of having his chest torn open. Now, sadly, wasn't the time to address the life-threatening wounds. He'd die regardless if he couldn't act now.
Welt planted his feet solidly to the ground, and jammed his hands between the tentacles strangling his neck. As the large black monster came to scrape at him again, Welt pushed off the dirt with all his might, spinning around the trunk of the tree while still grasped by the creature.
The lunge missed Welt by a hair's breadth, and the claws instead sunk into the arms of whatever had been pinning him to the tree for the past day. The tentacles shot back in pain, freeing Welt completely from its grip, and he brought his hands up to where it had been sitting atop his skull.
Welt felt his hands grab something boneless and soft, it thrashed around manically on his head, and Welt could feel the blinking of an eyelid against his skin as the thing panicked. He squeezed his grip on it hard, enough to hear some kind of pop as its skin broke. Welt could feel a warm and thick mucus trickle down his arms from beneath the thing's skin, and he yanked hard to pull it off his head.
It didn't come free without effort though, and its shallow teeth tried to remain in this scalp, scraping hairs out as he pulled it over his head. Finally, though, using the weight of his arms to his advantage, Welt brought the thing down to the ground and, before he could fully look at it, stomped on it with his boots repeatedly. Black blood and red insides burst free of a dark blue skin, and scattered on the pale yellow grass around the tree.
DANGER. RUN.
"No shit!"
Welt pushed his hands to his chest for a moment, trying to stop the bleeding for even half a second. Before he could do much, however, the shadowy monster circled the tree and pounced at him.
Welt put his hand out forwards, and summoned the walking stick just as the creature made contact with him. Its bite wrapped around the stick instead of his neck, and Welt pulled his trusty "Longsword" out of its sheath. As he fell to the ground, Welt pushed the knife up with both hands, meeting the underside of the monster's head with great force. It's rapidly blinking eyes stopped all of a sudden, and its weight collapsed onto Welt immediately.
Welt wanted to rest, but with the blood pouring from his chest threatening his life, he couldn't waste a second.
And yet, as Welt tried to put his hand against his bleeding chest, there was nothing he could do. The wounds were so deep, and even with the tentacle creature gone, the lack of feeling in his body that he'd first felt in the Fog was returning. He could barely tell that he was applying pressure to the wounds now, as the sense of touch in his arms began to vanish.
Welt cursed loudly, pulling his hand back shakily. He could faintly feel the coldness of blood loss throughout his body as it began to shake. His head was tilting and spinning uncomfortably. Still, he refused to give up. There wasn't much Welt could do now, but he began to grasp at straws.
Welt found the pine where he'd left his bandages, just on the periphery of the Fog that surrounded the tree he'd been pinned to overnight. He unfurled the bandages and looked inside, seeing a large, pierced bird eye within.
'Maybe.... it'll just make me die faster.'
Welt let out a small laugh before grabbing the eye. With the last ounces of strength in his shaking arms, he tossed it into his mouth.
Without even the strength to chew, he swallowed the large eye as best he could.
His eye's rolled back, and, suddenly, Welt was in complete darkness.